226 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
October, 1910 
Birdseye maple and curly birch, most of which come from 
Canada, cost about the same as mahogany. Their light color 
makes them favorites for bedroom sets, and the majority of these 
are in the styles of Louis XV and XVI. 
We are so used to the thought that most “old" furniture is 
mahogany, that it will doubtless surprise those who have not 
made furniture a study, to know that mahogany was first used 
about two hundred years ago. Previous to that time walnut was 
the favorite English wood, following the oak veneered with Ital¬ 
ian walnut. Tuna mahogany, now used for sets and occasionally 
for single pieces, has not quite the color of the “old mahogany" 
to which we are accustomed. It is the natural mahogany wood. 
Original Queen Anne settle covered with petit-point needlework. 
Reproductions of this style are much in vogue, with a machine- 
made covering as a substitute for the hand work 
Reproduction of a Chinese Chippendale bookcase, distinguished by 
its delicate carving as well as by its fine proportions 
C 
The Twentieth Century reproductions of Sheraton and other pieces 
are marvels of craftsmanship in spite of our supposed inferiority 
to the old cabinetmakers 
and is lighter in color because of the lack of stain; it is stained 
only enough to make all the surface of one color—the color of 
the wood where the sap ran the strongest. 
One of the handsomest styles made after the Sheraton period, 
the end of the eighteenth century, is a dark inlay instead of a 
light, on mahogany dining-room and bedroom sets. 
To-day there is little new in shape; we have gone back to old 
English and Colonial times, and the quaint grace and comfort of 
the old pieces, the artistic beauty of the workmanship, make us 
rejoice that our artisans can so closely carry out the designs 
which in old furniture are to-day almost priceless. 
The reason for the decline of the vogue of elaborate Italian 
and French styles is very easily traceable to the popularity of 
the old English country house idea. Where there is no formal 
drawing-room or reception-room there is no place for formal fur¬ 
niture. Our American living-rooms lend themselves only to the 
comfortable stuffed furniture of the Elizabethan, Queen Anne 
and Jacobean periods, relieved by the lighter styles made after 
the manner of the eighteenth century makers, Chippendale, 
Adam, Hepplewhite and Sheraton, and the French of Louis 
XV and Louis XVI. 
The old English furniture is so beautiful and so varied in 
design that it is impossible adequately to describe its reproduc¬ 
tion in a single article. The copies are legion, and, in the well- 
made furniture, so exact as to puzzle even a connoisseur. It is 
very difficult nowadays to secure an entire set of antique furni¬ 
ture, even if one has the money to pay well for it; and the best 
interior decorators and furnishers are forced to have old pieces 
made to “piece out” special orders of genuine antiques. Only 
the collector knows the difference — the average lover of old fur¬ 
niture is as much entranced with the new piece as with the old. 
Craftsman furniture of the better grades is still in evidence, 
and is associated in our minds with a certain type of living- 
room ; but the light Georgian furniture is now a relief to the 
eye, and much easier to handle. Craftsman designs have found 
their place as knockabout furniture, where they will maintain 
their deserved popularity. 
The first thought for a living-room is a settle or couch, and 
everything else centers about this one piece. If the settle se¬ 
lected be a copy of the Jacobean period, its earmark will be 
elaborately carved woodwork and Renaissance tapestry. Furni¬ 
ture of this period is used in large rooms paneled in old English 
oak, with highly carved mantels and pilasters. The old tapes¬ 
tries, which are cut up for covering the Jacobean furniture, are 
